Adaya Gonzalez |
Madrid (EFE) opportune and how the most visible vestige of covid-19 should be eliminated.
The director of the Center for the Coordination of Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES), Fernando Simón, has anticipated this week that the imposition of this garment in pharmacies “will end soon”, but he pointed out that “it would not hurt” to keep it “for a little while longer ” in the common spaces of health and social health centers, although he does not think that this measure is going to “last too long”.
“If we manage to maintain that culture of protecting others, I believe that this will be able to change soon and that the mandatory nature of masks will be eliminated soon,” he summarized.
A few days before, coinciding with the end of this restriction in Portugal and that a group of epidemiologists and experts in infectious diseases from eight international institutions requested it in the journal “Annals of Internal Medicine”, the Madrid Minister of Health, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, opened the melon assuring that the mask “must necessarily focus on the very vulnerable.”
Escudero advocated its use “in hospitals and health centers adequately, in the situations contemplated in the pre-pandemic protocols”, a message that was later conveyed verbally by the Madrid technicians in the alert presentation, the technical body of the Ministry and the communities who has been advising on the different measures taken these three years.
Now these experts need to make a formal written proposal that is debated in the Public Health Commission, although the modification of the use of a mask is the responsibility of the Council of Ministers.
What the communities think
The last time the royal decree regulating the use of face masks was modified in February, on that occasion to put an end to more than 1,000 days of mandatory use in transport and in all health establishments, with the exception of pharmacies, where kept next to health centers and residences.
Regarding the debate opened by Madrid last Friday, the Minister of Health, José Miñones, did not clarify anything, who limited himself to responding that his department will follow “the recommendations of that presentation when making any decision.”
The majority of autonomies that have responded to the EFE query also advocate waiting for the opinion of the technicians.
This has been done by Extremadura, Asturias, Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha, the Valencian Community or Galicia; from Aragon they do not want it to become a debate between communities and they do want it to be taken based on the criteria of the presentation, while the Basque Country has referred to “the experts and technical and scientific committees”, like Ceuta.
Castilla y León wants Simón to explain “the reasons why this is being done now without there being significant epidemiological differences compared to recent months”, and Andalusia has questioned the director of the CCAES arguing that we are still in a pandemic and now that there is a slight rebound “This is not exactly the time to debate whether to remove it or not.”
In the Canary Islands they are in favor of keeping it in care centers; Navarra recognizes that the epidemiological situation has changed a lot, but also that there are other types of respiratory diseases that can impact vulnerable people, so the risks and benefits must be assessed in the “most refined way possible”.
Catalonia advocates removing masks in a general way in pharmacies and residences -where users are widely vaccinated with two booster doses-, while in health centers it would keep them in hospital areas where people with infectious, respiratory and immunosuppressed.
La Rioja points out that the current policy is aimed at the most vulnerable, and Cantabria thinks that it may be time to remove them because “the pandemic is stabilized and it is possible to consider recovering more spaces of normality.”
But what do the experts think?
Óscar Zurriaga, president of the Spanish Epidemiology Society (SEE), explains to Efe that at this time “it still seems interesting to continue keeping them” in health centers because it is a way of “better protecting vulnerable people” against to respiratory viruses.
He admits that “it is much more necessary in some places than in others”, but leaving it in some areas and not in others would make it “more difficult to comply with the use”.
From the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (Semi), its president, Juana Carretero, maintains that the mask must be adapted to the current epidemiological situation, which is “low dangerous” thanks to the high vaccination coverage, with the exception of special groups such as immunosuppressed or cancer patients.
Thus, in areas of special risk where they are cared for or in isolation, “extreme precautionary measures” must be taken, but in transit areas in hospitals or in areas where patients are not directly cared for, it should no longer be mandatory.
From the General Council of Pharmaceutical Colleges they estimate that, although the situation has improved, in these establishments they must “still remain alert” because they constitute the main health point to which citizens with suspicions of contagion go in search of a self-diagnosis test.
Pharmacists, sources from the Council remind Efe, have already asked Health to include pharmacies as spaces for the mandatory use of face masks and maintain that the comparison made by the regulations of health establishments with health centers and services must be maintained in the future. against possible pandemics and health emergencies.